The present invention relates generally to the field of farm implements and, more particularly, to a tractor-towed farm implement commonly referred to in the art as a sand fighter.
In areas of sandy soil, particularly areas such as West Texas, heavy rain causes the finer and lighter constituents of sand in the soil to striate to top of the soil while heavier, moist soil is left below the surface. Wind will then cause this fine, light sand to blow, injuring crops and losing valuable top soil. To prevent the sand from blowing, an implement called sand fighter has been developed. A sand fighter tills up the heavier, moist soil below the surface onto the lighter components at the top of the soil, alleviating the wind effects.
Sand fighters commonly used today include an articulated frame extending over a distance of up to about 80 feet. One or more shafts is joined to the frame for rotational movement and tines spaced apart along the shafts dig into the soil to till up the heavier soil components. Each of the tines is a bent or straight prong extending radially from the shaft to penetrate the soil about one inch. The sand fighter is light enough to be pulled behind a tractor to treat large areas for farm land relatively quickly.
Known sand fighters are adapted to be towed by a chain or a hitch behind a tractor and the sand fighters remain in a deployed configuration in contact with the soil. Other articulated sand fighters are provided with hinged connections at various points along the frame so that the sand fighter can be folded up and hydraulic means are provided to lift the sand fighter out of contact with the soil so that the sand fighter can be transported to another field for use. Unfortunately, such sand fighters generally still extend over a very wide transverse direction even when folded up and present a difficult problem for the farmer in transporting the sand fighter to a distant field, not to mention the problem with other drivers along the roadway as the sand fighter is being transported over the roadway.
As previously described, some sand fighters are coupled to the power lift of the tractor providing a means to lift the sand fighter out of contact with the soil. Also, some sand fighters are built in sections having end sections which are folded over. Such a sand fighter is easier to turn at the turn rows and to transport from one field to another. However, known sand fighters either do not cover as wide a swath as is desirable, or they present too wide a profile when they are collapsed for transporting between fields.
Further, other known sand fighters include a number of closing spaced tines on the shafts, separated by wider spaces for avoiding young, growing crops. Such sand fighters require skill and great attention to the path and direction of towing the sand fighter, and do not till large areas of the field in the wide spaces between the closely packed tines.
These and other limitations in the art are addressed by the present invention.
The present invention provides a folding sand fighter adapted to be carried on the power lift of a tractor. The frame of the sand fighter consists of five frame sections with the center frame substantially shorter in length than the other sections of the frame. Each section includes a shaft with a plurality of evenly spaced tines to till up the heavier moist soil below the surface.
The center section includes a hitch adapted to be attached to only two points of a standard three point hitch of the farm tractor. The center section is hydraulically actuated to lift the entire sand fighter up out of the soil. The two sections immediately outboard of the center section are preferably joined to the center section with hydraulically actuated, hinged joints so that these sections are drawn forward alongside the towing frame for transport of the sand fighter. The outermost sections are preferably manually operated, although these sections may also be hydraulically actuated. The outermost sections collapse alongside the intermediate sections to provide a small profile for transport of the sand fighter.
A set of wheels are provided on the towing frame to support the sand fighter. Another set of wheels are provided to support the weight of the outer most and intermediate sections during deployment of the sections of the sand fighter and during the collapsing of the sand fighter for transport.
These and other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from a review of the following detailed description along with the accompanying drawings.